On 9th December 2011, the second anniversary since the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh embarked on its popular resistance protests against the Israeli occupation in 2009, one village resident, Mustafa Tamimi, was shot in the face by a tear gas canister from a distance of less than 10 meters.
Tamimi died the next day in Beilinson hospital, in Petah Tikvah. Before the incident he had been throwing rocks at an Israeli jeep during the weekly demonstrations in the village. It was from the rear door of this jeep that an Israeli soldier fired the shot which caused the death of Tamimi.
One year later, Nabi Saleh is commemorating the death of their son. On 7 December 2012, during the weekly demonstration, residents and protesters carried images of Tamimi as they marched through the village towards the land that was confiscated from them by the illegal settlement of Halamish.
The demonstration was typically met by force from the Israeli military at the checkpoint near the entrance to the village. The Israeli soldiers fired teargas, rubber bullets and skunk water in an attempt to disperse the protesters, some of who were throwing rocks at the army.
The following day on Saturday, a memorial service was held in the main square of Nabi Saleh in commemoration of Mustafa Tamimi and Rushdi Tamimi.
Rushdi Tamimi is considered at the second martyr to fall in the village, after succumbing to his injuries two days after he was shot in his thigh and his back from the Israeli military during a similar demonstration on November 17th.
As around 200 people gathered for the memorial, teargas canisters could still be seen scattered sporadically around the village grounds from the previous day’s demonstration.
The voices of village residents stood atop the stage echoed throughout the village as they read speeches to begin the ceremony.
This was followed by several performances of theatre and folklore dancing; the local children performed a play and later the Jenin-based Freedom Theatre took to the stage to exhibit their talents. Their act of “playback theatre” involves taking the past experiences of members of the audience and turning it into improvised sketches. The event lasted just over two hours and finished with an awards ceremony.
Even one year after the death of Mustafa Tamimi very little progress has been made in bringing the soldier responsible for his death to court. Israeli human rights group B’Tselem initially listed a complaint with the Military Police Investigations Unit in Jerusalem and as a result of this an investigation was opened two days later.
However no decision has yet been made. There has also been a campaign through social media on Facebook and Twitter, which is attempting to publicize the killer of Mustafa Tamimi by features different pictures of the soldier responsible for the murder. Iyad Tamimi, a resident of Nabi Saleh, encouraged this initiative.
“This effort needs to be continued to make this murderer go to court and be judged for what he did to Mustafa Tamimi,” he said.